Where can I find better anime?

[Q99]

Yea, it's not a parody, RomComs with lots of humor are a big chunk of 'em. There's also some serious drama ones (like 'girl ends up in fantasy world courted by several boys, but dangers afoot and they must protect her), but they've existed side by side forever.

Hana Yori Dango / Boys Over Flowers for example was a strong influence on Ouran, since it's about a working class girl at a rich school who clashes with/gets involved with the 'Flower Four,' the most elite boys in the school.

Come to think of it, there's some parody elements in Ouran, especially in the character of Renge who will occasionally start making assumptions on the stereotypical genre thing to be the case (i.e. assuming that the student council president would be a super elite guy who clashes with the main characters).



Hm, here's a good older series that came to mind when thinking of fantasy ones: The Vision of Escaflowne. A girl with a gift for fortune telling, Hitomi, gets sucked into another world with skyships and mecha (surprisingly low-tech ones that use swords, and are powered by the hearts of dragons). There she meets Van, heir to a kingdom that's being invaded, and Allen, a knight that strongly resembles her highschool crush. It's... a seriously solid fantasy series, and is considered to be a crossover series between shojo and shonen (for girls and for guys).

[TheFeniX]

I own the entirety of Escaflowne on DVD. Seen it. That said, having problems actually remembering large swaths of it, so it could be worth a rewatch. But the traditional anime stuff is kind of killing me at this point: I've seen it all aside from specific genres, it all starts to blend in.* I started in on Kuro Mukuro and this shit is a "paint by numbers" textbook on anime cliches. If I was 14 or something, I'd probably like it a lot more.

I don't hate it, but I'm specifically continuing to watch it without spoilering anything for myself to see just how high an average I can bat with me saying "I fucking CALLED IT." Right now, it's 100 and I'm not impressed with myself for being so clever.

Meanwhile, even Kill la Kill was able to throw me for a couple loops. Probably due to LSD induced writer insanity.

*Thematically and even concerning multiple plot lines, Sailor Moon and Power Rangers are the exact same show. One just has more kung-fu fights and one has more girls in short skirts. Yet, Sailor Moon is arguably a lot less sexist.

[Q99]

Sailor Moon is magic girl + Sentai, yea.

And there is a lot of formulaic anime out there, to be sure.

Oh, hey, have you seen 'Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'? Unrelated to the Ouran Haruhi of course, but the first season especially is pretty great IMO.

It's about a girl who's big into aliens, ESP, and time travelers and wants them to be real, but doesn't know that among her classmates are one of each. The main character (not her) is a sarcastic guy, and it's a pretty good slice of life / character piece.

[ray245]

You might want to take a look at RE: Creators.

[Q99]

Oh, hey, have you seen 'Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'? Unrelated to the Ouran Haruhi of course, but the first season especially is pretty great IMO.

It's about a girl who's big into aliens, ESP, and time travelers and wants them to be real, but doesn't know that among her classmates are one of each. The main character (not her) is a sarcastic guy, and it's a pretty good slice of life / character piece.

And I forgot to mention- Haruhi Suzumiya is literally god, doesn't know it, and the reason the alien/esper/time traveler are around her is to prevent her from growing bored and reseting reality which may have happened at least once before.

It's a pretty down-to-earth slice of life.

[Dominus Atheos]

Spoilers from books: no she isn't.
Spoiler

Kyon is, and Haruhi is actually the second pseudo-demigod he's accidentally made.

[Q99]

Spoilers from books: no she isn't.
Spoiler

Kyon is, and Haruhi is actually the second pseudo-demigod he's accidentally made.

That's not quite how I'd phrase it. Spoiler

While it is implied he's behind such, regardless, he still only triggers the powers while Haruhi has the much more active abilities, which has been seen to remake the world on occasion, such as when Yuki jacked them.

Not that that matters at all for someone watching the anime.

[TheFeniX]

Sailor Moon is magic girl + Sentai, yea.

Bit more than that. Not just the premise, but huge sections of episodic plots.

Like, here's an average episode:
Bad guys come up with plan to <suck lifeforce/whatever> from a group of randos
Good Guys have some sort of windfall/coincidence where they end up in the same area for reasons.
Bad guys attack
There's nearly always this scene where the bad guy does some AOE attack that happens to knock all the good guys down at the same time in the same area, though that's just me nitpicking a visual device. But it's so fucking prevalent.
Good guys foil plan after both side go THIS IS MY FINAL FORM (liberally apply stock transformation scene), some exceptions noted.

Like a lot of shows, they are at their best when the overarcing plot is moving forward. Power Rangers had a bit better showing here because the bad guys kept attacking around their high school. But I recall the most egregious Sailor Moon episode being that the bad guys attacked the same cruise ship the girls were on.

Yea, it's petty to beat up on kids shows, but there is a better way to do things. For another anime example, Bleach might be "samey" when it comes to the "blah blah blah" exposition, but the story is not. And it would be petty to beat up on the show for being dialog > fight > dialog > power-up > dialog > fight since that's the whole premise and merely one aspect. Even as annoying as it becomes.

Kuro Mukuro..... props I guess for the ending reminding me of the Doom novelizations and that one American guy (has to be voiced by the same guy who does Natsu, though I haven't looked it up) being the most vulgar asshole out there. It's like in Kill la Kill where the America high school kids show up and they've all got weeds in their mouths are are sporting football pads. Nearly spit coke at the TV.

Have a couple guys in the back of a pickup truck with a portable grill smashing empty Bud Light bottles on the ground and it's just like Homecoming!

And there is a lot of formulaic anime out there, to be sure.

Which is a shame because many Western animation studios are dealing with sub-par animation or just going to the "sameness" of their preferred 3D renders. There's more than a few American shows I could look into, but I've been enjoying some of the originality I've been seeing lately. As much as I might like the newer X-Men cartoons, even with new twists, I've still been involved in the X-Men franchise for a long time.

After watching the Abridged and against my own (and this threads) better judgement: I watched a bit more of SAO. I was... not impressed. For a novel premise, this show isn't good. Props for two characters actually being intimate plus the addition of marriage, but the cringe is real. Honestly, would like to see more of this. While I hated Rick Hunter as a person, watching him actually deal with Lisa Hayes in married life was pretty novel for that point in my life. That and Minmei dealing with being an aging pop-star. Man, Macross was a good show.

[Q99]

Bit more than that. Not just the premise, but huge sections of episodic plots.

Well, yes. It really was taking the sentai formula and adding it to magic girls.

Though I will note if you want to cut down on the episodicness, Sailor Moon Crystal eliminates most of the monsters-of-the-week and sticks much closer to the manga (which gets to the plot faster). That said, regardless it is a kids show ^^

Like a lot of shows, they are at their best when the overarcing plot is moving forward. Power Rangers had a bit better showing here because the bad guys kept attacking around their high school. But I recall the most egregious Sailor Moon episode being that the bad guys attacked the same cruise ship the girls were on.

Iirc they were only on that cruise ship because they were looking for an enemy plot.

That said, I'll defend the MotW episodes- they had plenty of fun character moments in there and IMO ended up more developed than the much more plot-focused Crystal mentioned.

[TheFeniX]

Well, yes. It really was taking the sentai formula and adding it to magic girls.

It's what, to me, makes it incredibly boring. And why when Power Rangers came out X years later, I felt I had seen the same show. To be fair, I never gave Power Rangers a fair shot since the only reason I even watched it was because it came on before The Simpsons and if I wasn't watching something "I was into," my sister would complain and get access to the TV from me.

Cheapshot: It's like... you know how I know Vampire Diaries is bad even though I only see a short scene as I walk from the fridge back to my PC? It's because every time I do there seems to be another scene where another vampire is chained up in the same basement to fight the thirst/mind control, while the same characters spout the same "you betrayed me" or "you need to learn control" dialog at each other. This crosses seasons, mind you, so it's not just like a hook for a given arc.

Same writing is same writing and Bad writing is bad writing.

There was one scene with lesbian vampires though. Although... that might have been Glee. So, just lesbians. I can't complain there. Moral of the story: my wife has no business complaining about me watching Ouran Host Club.

Though I will note if you want to cut down on the episodicness, Sailor Moon Crystal eliminates most of the monsters-of-the-week and sticks much closer to the manga (which gets to the plot faster). That said, regardless it is a kids show ^^

Never been a big fan either way. At the least something like DBZ (even though I hate it) or Bleach changes up the formula in multiple areas over time in at least enough areas to "move on." But the formula for these "Team Fighting" shows hasn't changed as far as I can see in nearly any area over the past 30 years.

And "kid's show" can mean a lot of things, so at least that will never be a turn-off for me. For example, while Wakfu is a kids show, the French seem to give little fucks about "sex" and fanservice on a level a child wouldn't understand is aplenty. Going further into "adult" themes: two characters actually have children and another laments issues with romancing another lead because she's aging while his race is extremely long lived. So, even though he should be around 18, he's physically still a child.

And while the violence is toned down considerably, people do die in this show.... or worse actually.

Iirc they were only on that cruise ship because they were looking for an enemy plot.

Possible, but I recall they won the tickets as a prize for whatever reason and there was no indication it was planned. Maybe Tuxedo Mask planned it, but I don't recall. And to be fair, not only did I watch the show 25 years ago, it was also at 5am before school because just getting ACCESS to anime at the time was a ridiculous hassle. Very little TV showed it and the VHS tapes were incredibly expensive at the time, even the illegal dubs/subs. Sometimes a single episode would cost as much as a movie. And Internet downloads? HA!

And the idea of buying Japanese Rainbow Brite in public at Animagic or wherever..... man, I have always had very little shame. But even I have my limits.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

You might want to take a look at RE: Creators.

I wouldn't, if I were you. Re:Creators suffers from terrible, cliched, writing.

Oh, hey, have you seen 'Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'? Unrelated to the Ouran Haruhi of course, but the first season especially is pretty great IMO.

As I get older, it becomes harder for me to recommend The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to people. Haruhi herself is a complete asshole surrounded by enablers (it's especially obvious in the second season,) and doesn't really get better until well into the young adult novel series that spawned the anime.

[Q99]

As I get older, it becomes harder for me to recommend The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to people. Haruhi herself is a complete asshole surrounded by enablers (it's especially obvious in the second season,) and doesn't really get better until well into the young adult novel series that spawned the anime.

Yes, that is true (well, Kyon excepted, being the one of her friends willing to stand up to her since he's not so afraid she'll reset the world)- which is part of why I recommend the first season as a unit. It ends on a nice upnote on that term.

[TheFeniX]

Had a chance to watch Knights of Sidonia. Starts out weak and gets better. But it's also reafirmed one thing I didn't mind about anime and removed one complaint. Before I get into that, at least this show makes an attempt at more "hard" sci-fi and can deliver some nightmare fuel. I am looking forward to another season if and when it comes out.

1. All the names being Japanese is cumbersome to me. And consistently switching between their first and last names doesn't help. I had major issues understanding who was being talked about, even when on screen, which goes into my next point. But I've never had an issue with Hikaru Ichijyo > Rick Hunter. But even then, there were multiple physical differences between the characters that gave me a basis to put a face to a name. As Knights lacked this, it became a problem.

Yea yea, baka gaijin, whatever.

2. I will never again complain about the Japanese throwing in multiple instances of oddly colored hair and eyes combined with multiple odd hairstyles and physical builds, especially when using an animation/CGI style such as what's used in Sidonia. The character are easily capable of blending into a blob due to the physical similarities and the use of cel shading to go along with it.

[General Zod]

I've been on an anime kick again and I'm gonna say go watch Death Parade. It's a non typical animu about what happens after you die. First three episodes were a bit rough but then it gets interesting.

[Q99]

2. I will never again complain about the Japanese throwing in multiple instances of oddly colored hair and eyes combined with multiple odd hairstyles and physical builds, especially when using an animation/CGI style such as what's used in Sidonia. The character are easily capable of blending into a blob due to the physical similarities and the use of cel shading to go along with it.

Ironically the clones are some of the easiest to pick out, due to pink hair

[TheFeniX]

I've been on an anime kick again and I'm gonna say go watch Death Parade. It's a non typical animu about what happens after you die. First three episodes were a bit rough but then it gets interesting.

We're looking to move, so I've decided to just stick with Netflix for the time being. My only caveat in our new place is some kind of "built-in" (or at least room for one) wherever our TV ends up because I'm sticking my already ready already i7 there as a streaming machine and plan to get on the Hulu and Crunchroll express and pretty much just die watching anime or whatever else. But I wrote this one down, and I'm sure I'll lose this notebook by the time we get through the move, if it does happen.

Ironically the clones are some of the easiest to pick out, due to pink hair

It's funny you mention that since my buddy in Teamspeak was like "well, how bad is it really, man? Because you bitch a lot."
"Ok, here you go, the most easily recognizable characters on the show are like 13 pink-haired clones.
Spoiler

"Oh, and the mecha-sized tentacle-rape demon and human/alien hybrid that I'm preeeeeeety sure at this point is a potential love interest to the main character."
"I thought you said this was Hard Sci-Fi."
And then Rob jumps in with a "Well, certain things get certain guys hard."
And we all about died.

[General Zod]

Get a trial from Funimation. They have Death Parade on there.

[Q99]

Ironically the clones are some of the easiest to pick out, due to pink hair

It's funny you mention that since my buddy in Teamspeak was like "well, how bad is it really, man? Because you bitch a lot."
"Ok, here you go, the most easily recognizable characters on the show are like 13 pink-haired clones.
Spoiler

"Oh, and the mecha-sized tentacle-rape demon and human/alien hybrid that I'm preeeeeeety sure at this point is a potential love interest to the main character."
"I thought you said this was Hard Sci-Fi."
And then Rob jumps in with a "Well, certain things get certain guys hard."
And we all about died.

Pretty much!

I'm also glad the Captain wears her mask most of the time ^^

There's one character that got a look change in the manga that'd make them stand out, which hopefully they will next season...

[Crossroads Inc.]

Y
Hm, here's a good older series that came to mind when thinking of fantasy ones: The Vision of Escaflowne. A girl with a gift for fortune telling, Hitomi, gets sucked into another world with skyships and mecha (surprisingly low-tech ones that use swords, and are powered by the hearts of dragons). There she meets Van, heir to a kingdom that's being invaded, and Allen, a knight that strongly resembles her highschool crush. It's... a seriously solid fantasy series, and is considered to be a crossover series between shojo and shonen (for girls and for guys).

I remember watching Escaflowne as a kid in the mid 90's, they only showed the first 13 episodes unfortunately, and I got to see the rest in college. It is really an AMAZING and under appreciated anime. It suffered a bit from the led Female role spending half the show either getting captured, or starting doe-eyed at the two lead Male roles from the show. Of course, the story behind Escaflowne is a bit amusing...

Apparently the show had two production companies.
The first started work on an Anime back when shows like "Gundam" where at the height of popularity. They wanted a "Giant Robot" Anime to bring in the boys, lots of explosions, fights, action and big machines! The original script took place wholly on the Fantasy world of Gaia, the two male leads where originally written much more as rivals, and both much more "Manly" and less "Bishonen" than they became in the final show...
Much of the script was finished, but the production company apparently fell on hard times and shelved it and was eventually merged, or got bought out by another.

Fast forward a few years, and times change, "Girls" especially lead girls are now more popular "High School Drama" Anime are now all over the market.
The new production wants to get something out and says:
"Hey, didn't you guys have a show that was like 90% finished?"
"Well yeah, but it's all Giant robots and guys fighting...."
"We can fix that..."

The rest is history.. The version we grew up on.. Hitomi, Earth, and all of the related stuff, was shoehorned into an almost completed Anime. The two leads, Van and Alan, became much more "dreamy" for the girls to relate to, and the story was changed to allow for Hitomi to play a crucial role in the story.

Funny how things happen.

[Vendetta]

That's not quite how Shoji Kawamori tells it.

Hitomi was an integral part of the show as co-protagonist from the beginning, because it's a Shoji Kawamori story and that means love triangle. It was the change of director (the original one went to work on G Gundam) that changed the tone of the show in a more shojo direction (boys got prettier, Hitomi was made more athletic and less fanservice).

[LadyTevar]

Just finished the movie "Blame".
Very much a homage to the "unnamed Stranger" western genre, imho. Man with a mission finds town in trouble, saves day, walks into sunset. The Post-Apocalyptic Robot v Humans made me want to learn more about how the world got that way. They gave you just enough background to leave me wanting more.

[Q99]

Just finished the movie "Blame".
Very much a homage to the "unnamed Stranger" western genre, imho. Man with a mission finds town in trouble, saves day, walks into sunset. The Post-Apocalyptic Robot v Humans made me want to learn more about how the world got that way. They gave you just enough background to leave me wanting more.

Yep, they picked up one of the most adaptable parts of the manga for that. Other bits are weirder, but it's often that type of thing.

[TheFeniX]

Still need to watch Blame! and some of the other anime movies.

Get a trial from Funimation. They have Death Parade on there.

Man, I want to bitch about Win10, but I've got more than a few streaming apps setup. I'm basically getting my rig in order now. My only issue is controlling it. I had figured I would do something like a remote with programmable buttons and just bind keys to certain apps. But, I need to look into it more. W10 has to have a better way to control apps than a mouse/KB. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but I'm mainly just getting the damn thing setup.

I've been scraping the bottom of the Netflix barrel as I've just been so busy with other shit. Over the past couple weeks, I worked my way through 7 Deadly Sins, even though it's what drove me to find better stuff.

That said, sans the pervy shit, this show was actually pretty good, but kind of falls apart with the super-villain at the end and more than a few happy endings for characters that were like "ok, yea, whatever." However, some of the Mind Horror with Gowther was pretty good and his existence as a mostly alien intelligence. Basically, Data with little morality, but also not a sadist like Lore. And even though I called it, man I loved seeing how great of a fighter King/Harlequin was without his spear. There more than a few other things, but the show can be incredibly good when it wants to be, but also incredibly bad.

So, not anime. But I did give Pacific Heat a shot after eyeballing it for quite a while. It's basically Archer but with an emphasis on rapid-fire dialogue delivery and execution. It's funny when these are on point, but they can drag on. I will say at least the timings, which are pretty important here, never fall flat even if the jokes do. That said, Archer is in another league writing-wise. It's.... I mean, I couldn't recommend for or against it either way.

Might be taking a break from anime for the time being as I'm finally going to look into Daredevil and the other Marvel/DC shows that have sprung up. Kyle won't keep bugging me about Daredevil and it does look good.

[TheFeniX]

So, the wife was once again sawing logs at 2am the other night. I had start in on Neo Yokio earlier this weekend, so I just binged out the first season.

Premise: New York got flooded or something and this kid is a New New York Socialite and fights for top spot on the "Most Eligible Bachelor" billboard which exists in Time Square or something. But he's also a Demon Slayer but is pissed because work gets in the way of his bullshit lifestyle. Jude Law voices a "Robot" and Susan Sarandon voices his Aunt.

The show is either incredibly bad or sort of good. Not great, but solid. The worst (or best) aspect is the protagonist is voiced by Jaden Smith. His dialog delivery is that of someone trying to sound way more profound than they are. And it fits incredibly well considering the character. He waxes poetic about how his life is over after getting dumped by the love of his life and it comes off incredibly petulant, if not well-spoken.

If I had just watched this show on youtube, I would swear it was a redubbed Abridged version of a Japanese production because the dialog is just out there.

Jason Schwartzman also kills it in this show. Most his dialog is worth a laugh. A lot of the Demon Magic stuff falls to the way-side later in the first season and we're left with some terror plot whatever stuff. They seemingly have no idea where they want to go with this show. For me at least, the show stands solely on its dialog and ability to portray the New York elite as worthless bags of hot air and being entertaining while doing so.

I've been working slowly on Irregular at Magic School. I'm about 4 episodes into the School Competition Arc. This show is pretty good. While heavy on exposition and repeating said exposition, the animation is at least on point. But man, them just standing around talking about how much a badass Tatsuya is gets hilarious and tiring at times. It's like a Steven Seagal movie. He consistently shows them that in a group of superheroes, he's fucking Superman, but because Kyrptonite exists, he's treated like Aquaman.

Like... Hitaru, or whatever. The VP of the student council who "never lost a duel" gets instantly owned by Tatsuya in straight up fight and is still all "I'll show them the superiority of the Blooms" when it's 110% evident Tatsuya was misclassed nearly as poorly as Saitama in One Punch Man. I have to assume this show is another stab at the Japanese obsession with official rankings. I also love how the Magic competition is much less about skill and much more about who can cheese things the most.
Spoiler

Was I not supposed to figure out Tat. Suya. is Taurus. Silver. within like 3 seconds? Even barring that, he shows up with two custom TS CADs and the kid is supposed to be a nobody.

Either way, good enough show. MY major complaint is once again: a stable of more than competent women are blown the fuck out by one ultra-badass dude. But it is hilarious to see the guys getting their asses handed to them because they won't go anywhere near Tatsuya and the girls are crushing it because they are much more level headed.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Oh hey! This thread is back woo!
Ok anyone out there watch “From the New World” ? I have some questions to ask on it